Another end
by Vuld Edone
Summary: After three months nothing has changed, Ponyville is still the same, a dream to live in because it is one. For three months this Pinkie had kept the dream going, and waited for its end.


**This is a fanfic' of a fanfic'. Again, of "Laughter Lost" and "Unexpected". Although it's not necessary to have read them to understand this text I highly advise it, not just for comprehension but because they have something I could neither reproduce nor find elsewhere. Something unique.**

**Sleepless gave me the "how", then I reread "Unexpected" and remembered Floyd and Pumpkin Cake. So this is rushed, basically two to three plans intertwined... But the only thing that counts is, this Luna is my Luna. It's not the Luna of "Unexpected", which explains most of the difficulties. And that's the whole problem, I could never bring myself to define exactly what my objective was. I have already so much to write, I couldn't delay this forever so that's the best shot it will get.  
**

**But then, at the very end of my six pages I suddenly knew what I wanted. What was a very weak and conventional line turned out as the core of my text. I just don't want it to end like that.  
**

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This was Ponyville on a brightful day like a brightful dream would be, without a Sun. It had a sky, it had grassy hills and the fringe of the Everfree, it had the fields and their fences and the many houses of the town, it had the streets, it had the bridges, she had never seen a dream so elaborated. The Princess of night paced by the path, found herself in the town square. She could hear the flags and looking afar, almost the shapes of mountains. Then tapping her glass slipper on the pavement the mare heard each sound clearly among those of rumours of the many ponies, the smell of their coats, that of sweets. No mind, not even hers she thought, could handle such a complex reality.

A passer-by pushed her, apologized and the Princess the same, wondered if it was the dreamer. But the pony was already gone, wiped in a blink by the flow around them. The Cit hall dominated, its red tiles weighing, flag down with no wind.

"You seem lost! Need help?" Somepony called and at first the voice was impersonal. That was not the dreamer either.

Each voice in a dream was the dreamer's one.

By the time she turned the voice had become fiery and rash, the sky blue pegasus just looking at her with a smile, shaking her many-coloured mane as if to tame the locks. Her voice was fierce but not her face, the same expression as her friend under the Stetson hat. Luna spent so much time noticing the freckles, so detailed, yet the proud mare didn't seem to notice. "Uh, you were just daydreaming. My bad!" The pegasus voice exclaimed in a snort, with expressions mostly missing. Even that was too hard to manage for this dream.

"No, no" Luna tempered. "I would need your help, Rainbow Dash."

"Who?" Dash said, looking at her friend and the cowmare simply shrugged. "I'm Floyd! See my rainbow mane? Floyd!" The young pegasus continued. "And that's my friend Applejack!"

Waving back at the silent greeting of the proud pony Luna thought, why Twilight's friend would wear a different name. She added a few words for the cowmare, saw her nod and suddenly, the Princess felt, she needed to verify, asked Applejack directly what the town's name was. "Ponyville of course!" She let the pegasus point out the mare's ignorance. so this friend couldn't speak. Why wouldn't she.

Somehow Dash had continued, in a sort of monologue, concluding that Luna was new in town she proposed to offer the visit. Just a few places, as she evoked it they were all three already pacing by the streets. "That's the school!" The pegasus showed the old building, leaving the Princess to hold a cold "I know". She then knew they had taken a path outside the town, almost following the forest's edge towards the bushy cottage. Many animals were there, a dozen or more by the fence forming a sort of circle in front of the window. They spread when the mares approached, all to their dens or bushes, the chicken to their tiny houses. By the window a cough erupted, making them close in.

"Hey it's me again!" Rainbow Dash greeted her pegasus friend. "I was passing by, showing the town to a newcomer. Mind if we get in?"

"Not at all" a weak voice answered, not weak by tone but ill.

They were inside, near a couch with a few animals all sick, sneezing or trembling of fever. The creamy pegasus, her smooth pink mane hiding her tired face, was smiling like the others. "Uh, Angel?" The moment Dash said that name there was no more mare but a little white bunny coughing just where she had stood, yet her voice hadn't changed. She was handling things just fine, the animals were a bit sick, nothing at all. The bunny had given a cup of soup to a lain down duck who plunged his beak in it, making waves on the surface.

The Princess was used to remain silent, not used to that precision. Dreams were usually so direct, so easy to read. Most of all she wanted to scream, she couldn't tell what exactly, just as Dash offered to leave with Applejack nodding it was as if the cowmare had spoken, the creamy pegasus accompanied them to the door. There was something, something, but the tall alicorn was cut by the sudden appearance of another friend of Twilight.

"Surprise !" Pinkie screamed of delight, then losing her balance she stumbled and fell on the entrance carpet, giggling. "I've come to raise your morale! Here!" The pink mare on the floor held a basket out to the shy pegasus.

Her eyes crossed those of Luna, the tall dark mare facing the giggling fluffy ball of sweets that was Pinkie Pie and she suddenly thought, Pinkie was the dreamer. Her expressions, her moves so vivid, but then why wasn't the dream centered on her the Princess couldn't tell. Already Dash was suggesting that their next stop was also their friend's home, so they could go together and her bouncy friend embraced the idea the very instant. The cottage's door had closed behind them, already, at the sound of the door shut Luna understood she had felt bad all along, in the cottage, and she couldn't tell why. They were already in front of the sweet shop, Sugarcube Corner with Pinkie proposing to go inside. Luna heard herself declining, playing her role now in the dream, and Dash and Applejack had vanished.

"Pinkie Pie?" The Princess interrupted. "Where are your two friends?"

"Applejack left for the farm, remember?" Pinkie replied with the tone of evidence, because in her dream it was the case. "And Floyd can never like his sky for long!"

"You mean Rainbow Dash?"

The pink mare looked at her, taken aback, she then smiled and confirmed, she did mean Dash and repeated, the sky blue mare needed her space. They were already trotting away, Pinkie ahead hopping joyfully as she said, they were going to the library. She felt it was her role, so Luna asked if it was where Twilight lived. "Twilight?" And to her surprise the young mare added: "Is that your name?" So Celestia's student didn't exist in this dream, and more and more it was feeling like something was dead wrong. Slowing down behind the pink mare as the huge tree was already visible past some roofs the alicorn rushed all the possibilities, looked at that uncaring pony wondering if truly she was able of such an intense dream. No, that mare was the dreamer, but it was impossible.

She had visited Pinkie's dreams so many times before, and they were nothing like that.

A whisper caught her attention, in the shadows a mare calling her. Luna turned again to see Pinkie but the pink pony had vanished. So she trotted to the mare a filly with a tiny horn and deep blue eyes, that she recognized glad to her mane the colour of pumpkins lighten up in the night. "You. Stranger." The filly told her, intimidated and for that reason, a bit harsh. But that was impossible, Pumpkin Cake was just a foal.

"You know where they are, don't you?" The filly's voice had angered. It was Pinkie's voice through that filly, a little intonation betraying. "Where are they? Answer!"

There was no reasoning with that dream, no asking who because there was no answer. Feeling reassured by such an usual apparition in ponies minds Luna lightened, smiled tepidly and her stellar mane waving lengthy in the hallway was filling the shadows of its glow. This was just Pinkie Pie playing another role, expressing another side of her thoughts. "Why do you stay in the dark?" Luna asked. They could be in the light, with other ponies and she showed the street with its distant rumors of life.

"When she sees me, she cries." Pumpkin Cake answered, lowering her head. "I remember her of her parents. So I hide and I watch her dream."

"Her drea- goodness, do you mean" Luna realized, and the filly nodded or at least the Princess thought she saw her nod before suddenly the scolding voice matured and a white pure mare lectured the alicorn about her appearance, "stop tripping on everything!" She stressed making the tall mare walk back in the light. The precious mare, seeming satisfied, turned and left, walked away by the street until only her curled tail was visible.

All this time all that had counted was her curiosity, suddenly the cold Princess felt she had to act. She looked around, the dream still intact, the town expanded past the hills almost to the mountains, then she looked up in the sky of clouds in gray shades, almost a mantle of them in the lights of late afternoon. Still no Sun but her horn glowed and slowly, opening her wings, she rose, raised the selene sphere up high with the stars. There it was the night sky as the keys and chains of all dreams, shining on every imagination. With that done she was before the cottage, on the bridge leading to it and she wouldn't get further. The cottage door was closed, or she thought, locked.

"So, you're here to watch me clean the sky?" The fiery voice make her turn and see the smiling mare a few steps behind.

"You're Rainbow Dash?" Luna heard herself asking. No, it wasn't even her voice but that of Pinkie overplaying.

"The one and only!" Dash put her hoof on the chest and the alicorn eyes widened. Her mane, her tail were gray, not a bristle of colour on them. They were playing a scene, which one the Princess couldn't tell, where she was defying the pegasus to clean the sky. As it advanced it seemed to fade, when she soared to the task she was just but a feeble sound and shape that vanished. It was just a dream, yet it felt so real, no dream could be so real Luna muttered for herself. The late afternoon was leaving place for afternoon tones, just suddenly, and the hills were visible no more.

Ponies had become rare, trotting fast to their destination they were leaving most streets empty, so many alleys and in each of them the tall mare could guess the presence of Pumpkin Cake. She saw Applejack, the cowmare walk quietly with two sacks of seeds on her back, going back to the farm. "Enough." In a flash Luna teleported, found herself in front of the mare and her hat, her unbreakable smile. Again, the horn glowed, as did the Moon and the young proud mare, sketching flight, couldn't move as magic floated on her, brushed her coat.

It lasted but instants, when Luna released her grasp it was still Applejack, yet her expressions had changed for one of terror. So expressive. She saw the lips moving, breathing a few words and then:

"The rock farm. I don't want to return to the rock farm." It was Pinkie's voice through her.

"Is that what you fear?"

"Where is dad? Where is mom? I want to see them again." Applejack's eyes were now filled with tears, her voice chocked she repeated, she wanted her parents. And Luna wondered, if something had happened to her family, or if she was just missing them, but something was dead wrong. She asked about Pinkie's sisters. "Sisters?" She had two, in this dream she had none, just as suddenly Applejack was gone leaving only the town lights here and there on the late evening. She could hear in the air a bell ringing, a call for brunch, more words or names as they waned away and she couldn't understand.

There was Sugarcube Corner, still open, the alicorn entered to find miss Cake behind the counter greeting her late client. She ordered something, anything and looked at that other fragment of Pinkie Pie. All in the shop was joyfull and quiet, and by the windows it seemed to be midday.

Then, it happened again, her voice but not her voice answering for her, and a scene she had no part with, being played despite her. She watched the cupcakes being sliced, cream flying and disappearing slowly until all sounds had muted. Miss Cake asked her if it was all, she thanked and saw the pink mare go down the stair. Luna called her and Pinkie Pie, raising her head, greeted her like a friend. That's when the Princess of night realized, how Pinkie was trapped in this dream, not in control, how this Ponyville was constraining her thoughts. She proposed to go out and as they left it was late afternoon again, or maybe a day had passed. It was more joyfull and that was all that counted.

"So, did you like it?" Pinkie asked. She meant the library. "You could stay there! Although, maybe the librarian might disagree but I don't think there was a librarian anyway and oh! Watch for books, Angel told me they bite and if Angel says they do you can't trust those piles of paper!"

"You mean Fluttershy." Luna corrected, yet again.

And again, after a second of confusion Pinkie happily nodded, Fluttershy of course, that shy pegasus was so good with animals, even though books were the worst animals of all. As they walked a few candy canes passed by and Luna sighed, relieved to see the dream reclaim its rights. Yet she knew she had to ask. About her parents. Because it would come back and haunt her. The mare had slowed down and almost stopped, her mane undone she turned a saddened look at the alicorn.

"It's okay. My parents want me to be happy, so I smile and I have fun and I make friends although I'm terrible at making friends but I have one and she is great even though we didn't see each other as of late and that must be my fault I guess..."

The young mare tried to find her happy pace again but raising all four legs at the same time she fall nose down on the grass and Luna, at first worried, got amused when Pinkie rolled on her side in a smile and added, "see?" See chuckled, then laughed and suddenly the Princess was alone laughing. Again, Pinkie had disappear, how could she disappear in her own dream. Luna called her, in the midday ponies were busy as ever, offered only their rumor for an answer. She looked at the crowd and it was just that, a crowd of undistinguishable shapes, no individuals. She sniffed and barely smelled anything.

The dream had left her in front of the library.

"Don't enter" Pumpkin Cake told her, pacing by her side. When the Princess asked why: "I don't know. Each time a pony gets in, the dream ends."

Luna could have answered that she was nopony, that she wasn't even a stranger to dreams but more of a natural presence. She could go anywhere. However her thoughts had drifted, facing the library she thought, and she couldn't explain those thoughts: that's where Pinkie went for her parents. So it was her hopes, and they had been deceived. She turned to the filly but only to be met by the gracious mare, Rarity asking if she was the librarian. Nodding, the alicorn waited for the reaction: "Good! Three books on the head, each leg after the other and no moaning!" Done with that fragment of Pinkie's mind Luna let her horn glow and the mare, in a last scold, popped like a bubble.

She then walked to the library's entrance, knocked at the door to listen if Twilight's voice would answer. All was silent, not even the baby dragon so she opened. The dream wasn't reaching that far, she could see nothing until she entered.

Inside was in ruins, the strong smell of moss added to that of old paper. Books on the shelves were dismantled, pages yellow, slowly morseling. Up the stair the door to Twilight's room was open and silent. Luna paced some more to notice it was entirely dark, so dark that it should have been impossible to see. The place had been abandoned, she thought, for a thousand years.

"I told you" Pumpkin Cake told her from behind. "I told you not to enter. Now the dream has ended."

"I don't understand." Luna paced more into the room, to see the table with its equine head statue almost devoured by time. "Her parents live at the rock farm. They are happy there. What happened..."

"The rock farm?" The voice of Pumpkin Cake was closer, almost at her ear. "Her parents never lived there." And brutally: "Wake up!"

She turned, to meet a pile of rocks. Where Pumpkin Cake had been was a pile of rocks with a pumpkin on top, which fell when the mare approached. She looked around, feeling distressed, searched and found another pile of rock near the desk, with a quill. She trembled, wanted to walk there but her shoe touched a rock on the floor. There ware rocks everywhere scarce, and the recognized them, moonrocks. Suddenly, the obvious became obvious. "So it's my dream" and she stretched her leg, touched the veil of dream. "And it's a nightmare."

She turned, now in her full armor a black mare whose mane defied the darkness, the eyes of a beast and she felt, she feared herself. She felt the weight of metal on her head, the helmet, on her back, she didn't want it and fretted but kept pacing, past the door, to the middle of the night.

Her eyes caught a move away, in the distance a mare or two running to escape. She went after them so fast but just a breeze glowing as it skimmed like snakes over the grass, past locked doors. The Princess of night stopped at a corner, looked at the edge where a low discussion was the last activity of the town. It was Rainbow Dash, but the silhouette of Rainbow Dash reduced to ashes, just a black shadow of herself. She was saying, she had searched everywhere, she had tried everyplace, asked everypony, turned every rock. And she was pleading for an answer. Then, slowly, even this silhouette vanished.

Among the rocks were a few feathers. and in the streets were piles everywhere, as if caught in the day, dozens and dozens. She could see every little side of each stone.

She didn't want to look at the counter. The shop was silent, engulfed in the dark. It was the same impression, the same nauseous impression she had had at the beginning of the dream but she couldn't remember exactly where and why. And she kept hoping, even she couldn't create such an accurate dream, so there had to be an escape. She was conscious, she would face and defeat her fears. The alicorn wished for an instant that Suns were in dreams then began to climb the stair, hissed at each step. She looked at her dripping hooves. What did it mean, what did she do, the dream wouldn't allow those memories.

Pinkie pie was in her room, lying on the floor near her bed. "Who is it?" The broken voice asked, so sad. The Princess wanted to answer but couldn't, rendered mute by the dream. She paced towards the filly.

"Is that you Twilight?" Her words were cut by short hiccups. "I don't want it to end like that. Twilight, I want another end!"

"I'm sorry" the voice said and it was Luna's voice playing Pinkie's voice playing Twilight. It would have said one more word, a name, but it was cut.

"No!" The filly cried, and Pinkie plunged her face in her cloud like cushion. "Mom would never! She would never" and the last part, leave her, got cut by her tears.

The Princess watched, without a word. She was yelling, she hadn't done anything, it was not her fault, she was no enemy. She was yelling inside and yet, the memories... No, it was the nightmare, another of those where she was fearing herself. It was nothing else she yelled, nothing else, she had done nothing to Pinkie's parents. The alicorn paced some more, and as if a moonbeam had unveiled her, she stopped again, almost on top of the filly. She wasn't going to do that. She wouldn't do that. Luna screamed not to do that.

"Mom..." the young filly cried, her white mane undone. "Dad..."

Stop it the alicorn repeated, she was awake, she could stop it. She could feel her own breath, her metal glitter weighing more as she raised the leg. Her entire body was no visible under the Moon, by the window the entire room was a shadow but for the bed, but for the filly and the Princess of night. She yelled, not to do this, Luna screamed at the moonlight increasing engulfed all.


End file.
